Rinaldo Del Gallo, III
By: Rinaldo Del Gallo, III
One of the rarer horses to appear in pedigrees is the great CITATION (USA) b. H, 1945 {3-l}. This is a bit surprising, as he wasn’t a terrible sire. Among his sons was FABIUS (USA) br. H, 1953 {3-o}, a horse that took the Preakness spoiling Needles Triple Crown (Needles was second in the Preakness and won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont). A daughter of Citation, SILVER SPOON (USA) ch. M, 1956 {A1}, actually made it to the Hall of Fame. Silver Spoon did have stakes winning descendants such as her daughter Inca Queen, who herself had stakes winning progeny. Siver Spoon was the second dam of Coined Silver, winner of the 1974 Florida Derby.
But what of modern pedigrees?
Citation did sire a Sapling Stakes winner WATCH YOUR STEP (USA) ch. H, 1956 {6-a}, who ultimately became the sire of the second dam of EXCEED AND EXCEL (AUS) b. H, 2000 {23-b}, an influential stallion. Citation was also the damsire of GREEN TICKET (USA) b. H, 1959 {4-m}, the winner of the World’s Playground S., Suffolk Downs S., Swift S., Lamplighter H., Rumson H., Select H. Green Ticket is the sire of the second dam of the influential AFLEET (CAN) ch. H, 1984 {1-h}. The sire BULLSBAY (USA) b. H, 2004 {13-c} descends from a Green Ticket mare. STACKED DECK (USA) dkb/br. G, 2011 {13-c}, twice a winner of the Kennedy Road descends from the same mare.
But another major sire is looming into the picture. I started to notice that CONNECT (USA) dkb/br. H, 2013 {4-m} is starting to enjoy considerable success as a stallion. Connect’s second dam was sired by RUTHIES NATIVE (USA) b. H, 1974 {8-h}, a winner of the Florida Derby, the Fountain of Youth S. [G3], and the Tropical Park Derby. The sire of Ruthie’s Native’s dam is an interesting one–RIGHT ABOUT (USA) ch. M, 1962 {8-h}, who had 1 win in 28 starts, had as a dam WHIRL RIGHT (USA) b. M, 1945 {8-h}, who was a full sister to WHIRLAWAY (USA) ch. H, 1938 {8-h}. Right About had a number of stakes winning offspring, SUPPORTING CAST (USA) ch. G, 1981 {8-h}, GRAND CREATION (USA) ch. M, 1982 {8-h}, and a mare given the boy’s name of BOB’S DYLAN (USA) b. M, 2005 {8-h}.
